South is still studying projectiles

May 18,2019

The Defense Ministry repeated Friday that more analysis is required to determine if the missiles North Korea test-fired this month were ballistic missiles or not, stressing that Seoul and Washington have been working hard to figure that out.

On May 4, North Korea test-fired a new type of tactical guided weapon, along with a barrage of projectiles from multiple rocket launcher systems, and launched two short-range missiles five days later, according to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

While experts say Pyongyang appeared to test-fire its version of Russia’s ground-to-ground short-range ballistic Iskander missile both on May 4 and May 9, the allies have said that analysis is underway to figure out exactly what type of weapons were launched.

“To clarify, we are looking into details. We don’t provide briefings on issues that the allies are working on,” a ministry official told reporters.

Earlier in the day, the vernacular daily Dong-a Ilbo reported that the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) tentatively concluded that Pyongyang fired the same type of new short-range ballistic missiles during its two tests, and named them “KN-23.”

No official comment from the USFK on the report was immediately available.